Beschreibung:

Autograph letter, signed "Victor Hugo", to the daughters of Philippe Asplet "pauvres chères petites", whose mother has died
"Hauteville House [38 rue Hauteville, St Peter Port, Jersey,] 22 janvier 1864". 2pp. written recto only of a bifolium (202 x 127 mm.), in black ink concerning the death of their mother, offering sympathy and advice, one or two words crossed through, mounted onto the recto of the fourth leaf in an album. The album, published by Ackermann & Co., has paper watermarked 1843, and contains 222 pp. Small quarto (235 x 183mm). Original brown morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and blind. Condition : a small piece torn from the upper blank margin of the second leaf. Provenance (of the album) : Mr. & Mrs. Philippe Asplet (by descent): Letitia Asplet (signature). a touching letter addressed to the three daughters of one of hugo's strongest supporters in jersey, contained in an album which recalls jersey's artistic community and the island's role as a place of refuge for the french proscrits of the mid-19th century . In addition to Hugo's letter there are entries dated between 1859 and 1870, with one stray later entry from 1915. There are six portrait/caricatures by the listed artists J.F. Draper, dated 1859, presumably of Jersey figures, and a number of early photographs (4 views of Guernsey, 2 portraits and a number of art reproductions). The poetry includes several indifferent love poems apparently addressed to Letitia, but also some that are rather wider ranging. There are two poems in French by Hugo's one-time secretary Adolphe Pelleport - one, dated August 1864, a lengthy hymn of praise to Jersey as a place of refuge and freedom. The Franco-Prussian war is touched on in a 3pp. poem by 'F.L.H', dated 2 October 1870, concerning the battle of Sedan. In addition there are a number of original poems in a single hand that are either the work of Letitia, or possibly her father Philippe Asplet, who wrote under the name Flip or L'Anmin Flippe. As a supporter of Victor Hugo and the French proscrits, he attacked the decision to force Hugo to leave Jersey.